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Antique Automobile Club of America - www.aaca.org 1769 * Nicholas-Joseph Cugnot (1725-1804) built a steam powered gun tractor capable of 2 mph. In addition to pulling an artillery piece, the vehicle could carry up 4 people. Cugnot's vehicle proved unmaneuverable and was quickly wrecked in what some consider the first automobile accident.

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1801 Richard Trevithick built a full-size road carriage powered by steam. It blew up after just four days of operation. He had carelessly let the boiler go dry. 1879 George Selden filed for his patent on a 'road engine'. The high speed internal combustion engine was yet to be invented, and Selden managed to keep the patent 'pending' for over 15 years--it issued in 1895. 1895 French automobile manufacturer Emile Constant Levassor drove one of his cars over the 1,170 kilometer course in the Paris-Bordeaux-Paris race at an average speed of 24 kilometers per hour. The longest stop for servicing took just 22 minutes. Levassor had been in the automobile manufacturing business since 1891. Automobiles were already considered a common sight on the streets of Paris. French and German manufacturers were selling cars through catalogues. * In Springfield, Massachusetts, Charles and Frank Duryea, two bicycle mechanics, formed the first U.S. company to manufacture automobiles. The brothers had built their first working automobile in 1893. That 1893 vehicle had been built by outfitting a second-hand carriage, which cost $70, with a one-cylinder gasoline engine.

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1899 There were about 8,000 motor vehicles in the U.S. 1900 Just 1 in every 9,500 Americans owned an automobile. 40% were steam powered; 38% were electric; and just 22% were powered by gasoline burnt in an internal combustion engine. There were 13,824 automobiles on the road in the U.S. when the year ended. Worldwide, fewer than 10,000 cars were produced. 1902 At least 50 new firms began manufacturing automobiles in the U.S. Between 1904 and 1908, at least 240 firms were established to manufacture automobiles in the U.S. 1908 * October 1, Henry Ford put the first of his Model T's on the road. The 4- cylinder, 20-horsepower Model T was available in two styles. The runabout sold for $825, the touring model for $850. During the last three months of 1908, the Ford Motor Company sold 6,000 cars. William C. Durant sold 9,000 Buicks during 1908. ($850 de 1908 = $16000 de 2001)

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1914 The introduction of the moving assembly line at Ford allowed the company to push production past 500,000 units, while dropping the price of a Model T to $440, and raising workers wages to $5 per day--twice the standard industrial wage in America. In terms of purchasing power, the Ford $5 day gave workers a daily wage that was equivalent to the weekly earnings for an industrial worker in Britain. Thus, assuming a 6-day work week for unskilled and semi-skilled workers, the Ford assemblers had twice the purchasing power of their American counterparts, 6 times the purchasing power of workers at comparable skill levels in Britain. ($440 de 1914 = $7900 de 2001)

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1938 The U.S. automobile industry still suffered from the Depression and reported production of just 2.5 million units. The world's second largest producer, Britain, produced just under 9% of the world total of almost 4 million (fewer than the U.S. had produced alone in 1929) with the 445,000 units produced. The fledgling Japanese auto industry produced 24,000 units. 1939 General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler accounted for 90% of U.S. production. The bulk of the remaining 10% went to the 'Middle Five' made up of Hudson, Nash, Packard, Studebaker, and Willys-Overland.

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1988 Japão continua em 1º, com 12,7 milhões e 26% EUA - 11,2 milhões e 23% Alemanha (3,9 milhões) e França (3,4 milhões) empatam com 10% Inglaterra escorrega na participação, com 1,5 milhões e 3,2% Produção mundial de 48,3 milhões, crescimento de 25% em relação a 1980 1989 Emission control legislation for Southern California projected the phasing out of gasoline-fueled automobiles by the year 2010. They are to be replaced with electric vehicles and upgraded mass transit systems. By the end of the 1980s, nearly 20% of all imported cars sold in the U.S. were 'captive' imports, that is, they were manufactured abroad but sold in the U.S. under domestic nameplates. 1990 Over 11% of the manufacturing capacity for automobiles was owned by foreign competitors producing their 'imports' domestically for the U.S. market. Most experts agreed that the U.S. possessed greater manufacturing capacity for automobiles than what the market required.